Beijing (XNA) Apr 21, 2021
China will announce the name of its first Mars rover on the Space Day of China, which falls on April 24, according to the China National Space Administration. Nanjing, capital city of East China's Jiangsu province, will host the main events marking this year's Space Day of China, Lyu Bo, a CNSA official, told a press conference on Monday. The events include the opening ceremony, bila

Houston TX (SPX) Apr 21, 2021
On Earth, we often look toward the sky longing to know what resides in the rest of the universe. Meanwhile, 250 miles above our planet, the International Space Station is looking back. Above us, multiple Earth-observing instruments are mounted on the exterior of several of the station's modules, including a limb full of cameras, boxes, and tools that hangs off the edge of the station's Jap

Houston TX (SPX) Apr 21, 2021
NASA's SpaceX Crew-2 mission is set to launch four astronauts to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon on Earth Day, April 22. The four include NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur and, a first for the Commercial Crew Program, two international partners, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and ESA (European Space Agency) astrona

Moscow (Sputnik) Apr 21, 2021
The first module of Russia's new space station will be ready for launch in 2025, this will be the Science Power Module, originally intended for the International Space Station (ISS), Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin announced on Tuesday. In mid-April, the Russian Academy of Sciences announced that Russia would terminate its participation in the ISS

London, UK (SPX) Apr 21, 2021
The next Arianespace mission is planned from Vostochny Cosmodrome with Soyuz on April 26, to deliver 36 satellites into orbit. By operating this fifth flight on behalf of OneWeb, Arianespace will bring the total fleet to 182 satellites in Low Earth Orbit. Arianespace is proud to share in the fulfilment of its customer's ultimate ambition: providing internet access for everyone, everywhere.

Bay St. Louis MS (SPX) Apr 21, 2021
Crews at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, worked April 19-20 to remove the first flight core stage of the agency's Space Launch System rocket from the B-2 Test Stand in preparation for its transport to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Operations required crews to lift the core stage from its vertical placement in the stand and lower it to a horizontal position on the

Boca Raton FL (SPX) Apr 21, 2021
American Pacific Corporation, a leading manufacturer of propulsion related materials for the Aerospace, Space and Defense industries, announced today that it has made a minority investment in Frontier Aerospace, a leader in the space propulsion industry. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Frontier Aerospace marks American Pacific's first investment since being acquired by AE Indu

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 21, 2021
The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter departed Earth for its 293 million mile trip to Mars aboard the Perseverance Rover last July. However, Ingenuity's most important journey was only about 10 feet. That's the altitude the small helicopter hovered just above the surface of Mars, marking a major milestone for humanity: the launch was the first powered flight on another planet and proof that it's possibl

Melbourne, Australia (SPX) Apr 21, 2021
Yesterday at 9pm Australian Eastern standard time, the Ingenuity helicopter - which landed on Mars with the Perseverance rover in February - took off from the Martian surface. More importantly, it hovered for about 30 seconds, three metres above the surface and came right back down again. It may not sound like a huge feat, but it is. Ingenuity's flight is the first powered flight of an air

Canberra, Australia (SPX) Apr 21, 2021
In 1994, physicist Miguel Alcubierre proposed a radical technology that would allow faster than light travel: the warp drive, a hypothetical way to skirt around the universe's ultimate speed limit by bending the fabric of reality. It was an intriguing idea - even NASA has been researching it at the Eagleworks laboratory - but Alcubierre's proposal contained problems that seemed insurmounta